“While others form first impressions based on appearances, she instead perceives (others based on) their voice and what they say.

“I feel she really listens without judging and I can open up to her.”

Despite being different, she felt welcomed as all her classmates offered her their help, fostering a strong sense of community within the class.

When her friends chat with her on instant messaging app WhatsApp, she has the option to record snippets of her voice in her reply.

But she often takes the more difficult route of typing her responses out on the touchscreen of her iPhone 6.

Her friends said she sometimes makes typing mistakes, but they can still understand her.

Thanks to a text-to-speech converter software installed on her laptop, she is able to keep up with her classmates despite her disability.

Instead of hard-copy notes which her classmates get, she gets it in soft copy so that she can listen to them with her earpiece as the software reads out the words to her.

Her personal laptop was not customised with blind-friendly features such as a braille keyboard, as she felt she could cope without it.

While she initially found it difficult, Miss Ong is now proficient enough to type normally.

Another classmate, Mr Kejamughan Parathidasan, 20, is computer-savvy and was helpful when Miss Ong had technical difficulties with her laptop.

Apart from solving system errors, he helped Miss Ong by repeating what the lecturer said whenever she missed it, or by reading aloud the words on the whiteboard.

Miss Ong, who plays the saxophone in the school’s symphonic band, also performed well enough to represent the school in the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) 2013.

Fellow band member, Teh Sook Hui, 20, would type out a description of the sheet music (including the dynamics of the song and the length of notes) to help her friend learn it. She also recorded herself playing for Miss Ong to listen to.

Since she could not refer to her friend’s notes during the performance, she completely memorised them before her practice sessions.

CHIPPED IN
Her friends even chipped in to help make everyday acts like eating and walking around easier.

She said: “My friends likened my plate of food to a clock face, telling me, ‘There’s a fishball at two o’clock’ or ‘There’s meat at six o’clock’ to help me see.

Miss Ong has grown so close to her classmates that they can tease and make fun of one another.

For example, since Miss Ong wears a earpiece with a voice-over of notes for the class from her laptop, her classmates teased her about listening to music instead of paying attention in class.

And she held out for sweets when classmates asked her to join their project group for her strong subjects, like English Literature.

Her form teacher, Madam Shamala Maheswaran, 48, said Ms Ong is an extremely resilient girl who tried to be self-sufficient.

When she got lost mid-lesson, she would not ask the lecturer to repeat himself, choosing to approach him after the lesson.
Instead of feeling dejected when she did poorly in tests, she would keep trying until she got it right, said the teacher.

For her efforts, Miss Ong received a special mention by the school during the release of the A-level results yesterday. The entire cohort applauded when she went on stage.
She told TNP: “I felt proud to be recognised by the school, but I believe I am no different from any other normal student.”